ICEEfest 2015: facts, figures and the final agenda

There are few days and not many tickets left, so… it is the time to talk a bit about the structure of ICEEfest 2015.

In numbers

• We compressed, in 2 days, over 60 hours of presentations
• In total, over 80 EXPERTS will take festival’s stages
• There are 5 stages – 3 main ones: INNOVATION, KNOW-HOW and EXPERTS + other 2 VIP areas
• We will have over 10 hours of fun and networking during both evenings, at The Viral Nights (live concerts, stand-up, projections, party etc).
• IAB MIXX Awards is back @ ICEEfest

It is an event which tries to cover communication, media, marketing and technologies that determine a radical transformation of the economy, via internet, in a format as well structured and useful for the decision you will make.

I believe the statement “digital economy changes everything”, part of the communication campaign, is pretty accurate: there isn’t anymore any area of business which isn’t impacted in a significant manner by the internet. And we don’t even speak about the lives of each and every one of us…

Festival’s structure

A “professional” read of the agenda will allow you to structure your time more efficiently during the 2 days of festival, depending what is useful and of interest to you. If you already have a ticket, I recommend you to use for that also the ICEEfest app (another novelty, available starting this year).

So, starting “from big to small” (or, if you want, following the road through an imaginary “conversion funnel”) “the menu” looks as it follows:

1. Content and journalism

Without publishers, without content (professional one or “user generated”), nor Facebook or Google would exist. So we start from this and we have heavy names on the stage: The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Prisa Noticias (publisher of El Pais, AS etc), Le Figaro, VICE, Kurier.

Moreover an EXPERTS STAGE during Day 1 fully dedicated to content, journalism and storytelling (I warmly recommend you not to miss the workshop and presentation from Mind Scapes on this theme).

Also here, during Day 2, we are preparing a session dedicated to artists, vloggerilor and to those generating content just “for glory” (for now) or who don’t make money from this directly. Yet.

• More on this, via AdHugger.

2. Creativity, amplification, awareness

Here it will be maybe the most spectacular content, as long as we bring to Bucharest people that gather full crowds from Cannes (Lions) until SXSW (Austin, USA). R/GA, Happiness, Hey Human!, Mind Scapes, Stink Digital, Candy Space. Known names within the industry, and known mainly due to their work.

• A few case studies and convincing events on AdHugger.

3. Performance marketing, eCommerce

Ok, content and creativity are cool, but in the digital economy (and not only), money dictate, so sales and direct performance.

This year, the area is much better delimitated and has a dedicated stage and a dedicated day (Friday, June 12^th, KNOW-HOW Stage). Experts from uSwitch, House of Kaizen (don’t miss them, they are really good!), AKM3 but also the giants Facebook, Google will fully cover the subject, with info and advanced techniques for the professionals in the field (with 2 Master Class sessions).

About eCommerce, another moment of maximum interest in my opinion happens on INNOVATION Stage during Day 2, when Iulian Stanciu | eMAG will hold a presentation.

• More about eCommerce stream, here.

4. Mobile & Apps

“The Internet is going mobile”. We know that, so we have an extremely dense session on this subject during Day 1, June 11^th (INNOVATION Stage, starting 16:15). Uber,  Shazam, Skype, Globo, Yodel Mobile, Yahoo, InMobi, UpStream – just a few examples.

Adding to them are, of course, Facebook, Twitter, Google – who cover extensively this subject also, both in their presentations (programmed for Day 2 in the morning) and also in workshops.

• More details, also on AdHugger.

5. Programmatic Trading

“Programmatic is the new black”. No digital event during the last 2 years is missing a serious subject, that can rapidly change the entire ecosystem of transacting online advertising. As the topic can affect entire areas of the industry, it receives the deserved attention: a dedicated stage and a full day (Thursday, June 11^th, KNOW-HOW Stage).

Presentations on this subject will be held, among others, by: Double Click (Google), Sizmek, Smart AdServer, Xaxis, Adara, DataXU, InMobi, TailWind (Project Agora), Braininet, Prometheus, PubMatic but also representatives from major communication groups (WPP, IPG etc).

6. Startups and Financing

This year, we treat accordingly the start-ups and entrepreneurs. More exactly, the final of festival’s “serious” part is dedicated exclusively to this subject. After 2 days about trends and concrete things in the industry, Friday, June 12^th, starting 16:30, on INNOVATION Stage, we are looking for “The Next Big Thing“.

We will receive help in this project – that we are running this year together with AeRO / Bursa de Valori Bucuresti – from more important personalities of the industry:

• First of all, Radu Georgescu – that will be present along with the newest project he is involved in, Vector Watch, developed together with Andrei Pitis
• Niall Harbison – the author of “Get Shit Done“ book, CEO PicStach and an exceptional speaker
• Joining them as part of the jury to evaluate live the projects from “200 Seconds of Fame” are other important names: Marius Ghenea – 3TS Capital Partners; Marcin Wojcicki – AeRO, Orlando Nicoara – WeLoveDigital; Laurentiu Ispir – Oresa Ventures and Odysseas Ntotsikas – Founder Think Digital Group.

Details on this part of the festival are available here, via AdHugger.

7. The Viral Nights

Last but not least, if we chose this year to go on the system “go big or go home”… We decided to get also into having fun, with The Viral Nights of ICEEfest.

After the already “traditional”  IAB MIXX Awards, slowly-slowly we got to a real show that we will produce together with CAT Music, and support from KISS FM.

So Thursday, June 11^th, in the evening of Day 1, at BOA – Beat of Angels, we will have a super-show that will combine live music (Delia, Adda, Elena Gheorghe, Shift, Ruby, Randi, Free Stay) with musical comedy and parody (Sergiu & Andrei/ KISS FM, Micutu & more) + DJ and everything else.

On Friday, June 12^th, at Grand Cinema & More, we have Stand Up Comedy with “the one and only” Jeff Leach (also the MC of the entire festival) + the already traditional “Viral Movie Night” format, where clips that sky-rocketed on Youtube and Facebook during the last year are commented.

This year’s edition will be full of color, hosted by Cabral. The expert role is filled by Mr. Bogdan Naumovici and commenters will be Bobonete, Micutu + Sergiu and Andrei. I believe that, from this combination, only a fun evening can result.

The complete fun agenda is here > The Viral Nights

What else needs to be said?

• That there are still around 350 tickets available and we have special prices for students, start-ups, e-commerce, and we can make special prices for groups or only for certain parts of the festival > Details here
• That we launched an ICEEfest app – one we want to transform into a select community, useful for business (reason why it is only available to those that have a festival ticket) > It looks like this
• That, if you read all the way until here, it means you are interested and deserve a little prize: with the code dStanca_net03 – that you must fill in here (in the section “Click here to enter a promotion code”) – you will pay 20% less for a ticket to all the events included in the festival 😉

Thank you and I hope you will support me in this madness (by buying a ticket). Or by convincing your boss to invest a small amount in your professional abilities (an investment he or she will also benefit of).

PS Take a final look at some of our speakers 😉 CEE you there, right?